9 octobre 2018 | International, Terrestre
By: Daniel Cebul
WASHINGTON — Even as Army leadership points to the great progress made toward interoperability of missile systems, the future could take that vision one step further.
During a Monday panel hosted by Defense News at the Association of the United States Army annual meeting, Col. John Rafferty, director of the Long-Range Precision Fires Cross-Functional Team, said the Army aspires to have “an integrated network, rather than interoperability, which is the work around" in the meantime.
"When we get into operational strategic fires we want to extend the systems approach across the fires warfighting function, offensive and defense,” Rafferty added.
Tom Karako, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Missile Defense Project, stressed that a more aggressive approach to integrating offensive and defense fires is required to defeat current and future near-peer threats. One area Karako has his eye on “is the degree of integration between Maneuver SHORAD, and frankly the whole rest of ARMY AMD, as well as offensive fires. Making sure that interoperability or integration is common as opposed to being another stovepipe of excellence.”
The Integrated Air and Missile Battle Command System (IBCS) is one Army program that will be key to achieving integrated fires. The brains behind the Army's future air and missile defense command-and-control system, IBCS will improve the operational capabilities of current AMD systems like THAAD and Patriot by connecting the former disparate systems. When integrated, the Army can leverage THAAD's AN/TYP-2 radar to extend Patriot's effective range and provide a clearer picture of incoming threats.
Discussing the importance of integrated air and missile defenses, Karako said, “just as there is that full spectrum of air and missile threats, we're going to need to have a full spectrum and integration of air and missile defense.”
Rafferty and his team have not overlooked the significant investment being made in long-range precision fires.
“I definitely feel like we are the number one modernization priority for the Army,” Rafferty said. “I also realize that with the investment comes a sense of cost consciousness because we know that hard choices were made ... across the Army to resource this number one priority.”
And while Rafferty's cross functional team is receiving significant funding, the Army knows it has to work as a team to achieve its goals. As explained by Brig. Gen. Alfred Abramson, the program executive officer with PEO Ammunition, the Army has to put their heads together to figure out “where's the juice worth the squeeze in terms of investment."
"Can we build a better mouse trap so to speak with some limited dollars, because you can't spread it across everything,” said Abramson, adding that his organization has seen a significant spike of about $2.5 billion for fiscal years 2017 to 2022 funding for ammunition and armament systems products. "At the same time we have a conversation with Col Rafferty's organization about what direction should we be heading. So it really is a discussion across these organizations to make sure everybody is focused on the same thing.”
23 août 2021 | International, Terrestre
After problems in Poland and the need for more survivable missile defense systems, the idea of a more transportable Aegis Ashore system could be back on the table.
17 mars 2023 | International, Autre défense
La Commission et le service européen d'action extérieure ont dévoilé leur première feuille de route pour assumer plus de responsabilité en matière de sécurité dans l'espace. Une loi européenne sur l'espace est promise pour 2024.
8 novembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By Lee Hudson The Pentagon has issued a laundry list of items that are “most in peril” during a potential six-month continuing resolution (CR) that includes the UH-60M helicopter, aircraft carrier maintenance, establishing a Space Force and new-start programs like F-15EX. Congress voted to pass a stopgap CR to keep the federal government funded through Nov. 21. Passing a CR buys Democrats and Republicans more time to reach consensus on fiscal 2020 appropriations bills, which are being held up for defense because of disagreement on funding a border wall. Operating under a CR only allows the Pentagon to operate at prior-year funding levels and the services cannot begin work on new-start programs. “We would like to see Congress find ways in the CR to fund those,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters Nov. 7 during a briefing. “The bottom line is that a CR, top to bottom, is debilitating. Whether it's readiness, we lose buying power, we lose predictability with our contracting, we lose the ability to train.” A six-month CR lasting through the first half of fiscal 2020 (ending March 31, 2020) would slash munitions procurement by 1,000 Joint Direct Attack Munition tailkits, 99 Sidewinder Air-to-Air Missiles and 665 Small Diameter Bomb IIs, which will constrain industrial production capabilities and delay inventory buildup. The Pentagon says delaying F-15EX production forces the Air Force to operate and sustain the aging F-15C fleet longer than planned, which would incur extensive maintenance actions. Operating under a six-month CR puts at risk Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk production of 15 aircraft valued at $247 million. A year-long CR would upset the current strategy for the Precision Strike Missile and increases risk to contract the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft competition. Operating under a longer CR in fiscal year 2020 will curtail 14 ship availabilities, cancel ship underway training, shut down non-deployed carrier airwing and expeditionary squadrons and restrict fleet flying for training and deployments, Navy spokesman Lt. Tim Pietrack told Aerospace DAILY. The budget uncertainty will detrimentally affect the midlife refueling of the USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), which requires funding for advance planning and long lead-time material purchases to begin the maintenance period in January 2021. “Failure to fund the CVN 74 [refueling and complex overhaul] will cause a month-for-month slip, increase costs, and delay the return of CVN 74 to the fleet,” Pietrack said. The CR also would impact the production rate of 22 F-5s, three MQ-9s, five F-35Cs and one KC-130J. Operating under budget uncertainty also blocks the Navy from increasing the production rate for the Tomahawk, Amraam, Rolling Airframe Missile, Joint Air to Ground Munition, Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile, Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Over-The-Horizon missile, Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile, Mk. 48 torpedo and LCS module weapons. “Based on required progress payments, the CVN 80/CVN 81 Carrier Replacement Program will not have sufficient funding to make a required payment on May 1, 2020,” Pietrack said. “This could result in required renegotiation of the contract and higher end costs for both CVN 80 and CVN 81.” https://aviationweek.com/defense/dod-space-force-f-15ex-peril-under-cr